The Dingo Trail
The Dingo Trail is a short story which Johns wrote for The Children's Wonder Book in Colour Number Two which was published by Odhams Press in 1948 with illustrations by A. Oliphant. The story was not gathered into an anthology in Johns' lifetime and only came out in Winged Justice and Other Uncollected Stories published by Norman Wright in 2001. Synopsis While out hunting a dingo in the Australian desert, teenager Alexander Mackail and his friend Joe discover that it has been killed by a strange bar-shaped piece of metal. Plot (may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) Alexander Mackail, also known as Alec is out hunting a dingo which has been preying on the sheep at his father's sheep farm at Bulaboo. With him is his friend Joe, the son of one of his father's aborigine farm hands. Relying on Joe's expert tracking skills, they soon come upon the dingo in a hollow in the Bulaboo Desert. To their surprise, it is dead. It had apparently been hit on the head by a bar shaped piece of heavy metal. There are no other tracks, so Joe tells Alec that the piece of metal came from the sky. Alec now recalls an aeroplane which he had seen flying in the area. It had a single strut when it went out and two when it returned. The piece of metal looked like a section of strut. It could have been inside one. The next day, Alec and Joe make their way to Parafield Airport in Adelaide. They see an old wartime "Ronkers" aircraft. It's the type he had seen around his farm. Another Ronkers is coming in to land. They appear to belong to the Warcraft Disposals Company. Ignoring a sign proclaiming "No Admittance", Joe and Alec climb over the fence. Alec tries to peep into a hangar when he sees mechanics detaching a strut from a Ronkers. Alec is spotted by a man who warns them to leave but they had already seen enough. They go straight to the police station where the chief has the good sense to agree to see Alec. Alec shows the piece of metal he picked up but is disappointed when the chief tells him to go home and "forget it" but to say nothing to anybody. Alec presses his question: is it important? The chief tells him its the most important thing that's happenec in Australia for a long time. Outside the police station, Alec and Joe see a large police force being gathered and decide to follow them. It turns out to be a full scale raid on the airport. The boys can't do anything so they watch from a distance to avoid getting in the way, but one of the mechanics from the Warcraft company appear to have broken through the cordon and is running towards a car. Joe launches his boomerang and knocks him to the ground. The chief comes over and compliments him on a good shot. He tells them what it is all about. The bar was made of uranium! It turned out that there had once been a gold mine in the area. The uranium was part of the waste turned up in mining the gold. Noone bothered with it until uranium became important. Then someone decided to exploit the metal but instead of declaring it to the Australian government, had planned to smuggle it out and sell it to the highest bidder overseas. They hid the uranium inside an extra strut fitted on a fleet of aircraft but unfortunately for them, one of the struts had broken in flight, spilling the contents and killing the dingo. Alec and Joe were amply rewarded for their initiative. Characters *Alexander Mackail *Joe Aircraft *"Ronkers" - no specific description is given except that it is a "wartime" type. The struts suggest a biplane and biplanes are what is shown in the original illustrations. Could be Fokkers or Junkers. Places *Bulaboo Desert *Parafield Airport, Adelaide Research Notes Publication History *The Children's Wonder Book in Colour Number Two, Odhams Press, 1948 *Collected in Winged Justice and Other Uncollected Stories, Norman Wright, 2001 References Category:Short stories Category:Other short stories Category:Uncollected stories